frontline: the merchants of cool | PBS
FRONTLINE journeys into the world of the marketers of popular culture to teenagers. They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the 'next big thing' that will snare the attention of their prey-a market segment worth an estimated $300 billion a year. They are the merchants of cool: the creators and sellers of popular culture, who have made teens the hottest consumer demographic in America. But are these marketers merely reflecting a growing coarseness in teen culture, or have they helped create it? Are they simply reflecting teen desires or have they begun to manufacture those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market? And have they gone too far in their attempts to reach the hearts-and wallets-of America's youth?

Israel's settlement setback | Seth Freedman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk [via claudio]

Seth Freedman: Obama's anti-settlement stance is giving the Israeli right a taste of its own medicine – and its howls of protest ring hollow

Head of eHealth Ontario to receive $317K after being removed amid scandal [via claudio]

Some See China’s Buying Spree on Commodities as Short-Lived - NYTimes.com

Shipping and commodity executives are questioning China’s motives as it piles up extra quantities of products.

Cancer: The cost of being smarter than chimps?

Are the cognitively superior brains of humans, in part, responsible for our higher rates of cancer? That's a question that has nagged at John McDonald, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Biology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute, for a while. Now, after an initial study, it ...

Biochar: turning waste into wealth

As all gardeners know, manure helps the flowers grow. But that manure also gives off greenhouse gases, contributing to global climate change.

Typhoons trigger earthquakes on Taiwan: scientists
Surprised scientists say that typhoons which hit Taiwan unleash long, slow earthquakes, a phenomenon that may save the island from devastating temblors.

How 18th Century Technology Could Down an Airliner | Autopia | Wired.com

While the mystery of what caused Air France Flight 447 to vanish into the Atlantic Ocean is far from solved, preliminary reports suggest equipment first

BBC NEWS | Americas | Shooting at US Holocaust museum

An elderly man said to be a white supremacist shoots dead a guard at Washington's Holocaust museum before being wounded.

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Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: The Dizzying Data Rate Conundrum
From MIT. Information on Emerging Technologies & impact on business & society

Technology Review: All Washed Up for Jatropha?

The draught-resistant

Technology Review: Wireless Power Harvesting for Cell Phones

Nokia hopes to create a device that could harvest enough power to keep a cell phone topped up.

Michigan Works to Remake Itself Without King Auto - NYTimes.com

Lawmakers and executives are looking to alternative industries like filmmaking and solar panel production.

Continental Divide - Economy Shows Cracks in European Union - Series - NYTimes.com

European leaders, preoccupied with domestic politics, are fighting over how to combat the economic slump, protecting jobs at home at the expense of fellow members.

CrossCanada: a biking documentary - Hack a Day

New antibiotics could come from a DNA binding compound that kills bacteria in 2 minutes

(PhysOrg.com) -- A synthetic DNA binding compound has proved surprisingly effective at binding to the DNA of bacteria and killing all the bacteria it touched within two minutes. The DNA binding properties of the compound were first discovered in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick ...

Biodegradable synthetic resin replaces vital body parts

Researchers at the University of Twente (UT) have developed a new type of resin that can be broken down by the body. This new resin makes it possible to replicate important body parts exactly and make them fit precisely.

Is this the beginning of the end of plant breeding?

No human is a clone of their parents but the same cannot be said for other living things. While your DNA is a combination of half your mother and half your father, other species do things differently. The advantage of clonal reproduction is that it produces an individual exactly like an existing one—which ...

MIT takes aim at ‘phantom’ traffic jams

(PhysOrg.com) -- Countless hours are lost in traffic jams every year. Most frustrating of all are those jams with no apparent cause — no accident, no stalled vehicle, no lanes closed for construction.

Mars mission could ease Earth's energy supply crisis

Techniques and instrumentation initially developed for ExoMars - Europe’s next robotic mission to Mars in 2016 - but now due to fly on a NASA mission in 2018, could also provide the answers to the globally pressing issue of energy supply.

Sunday Herald: International: International

Brazil's Pirahã Tribe: Living without Numbers or Time - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The Pirahã people have no history, no descriptive words and no subordinate clauses. That makes their language one of the strangest in the world -- and also one of the most hotly debated by linguists.

Mysterious Inscribed Slate Discovered at Jamestown

Archaeologists are trying to unravel the mysteries of an unusual, inscribed 400-year-old slate tablet they dug out of a well in the early American settlement.

Asch conformity experiments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bystander effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battling Termites? Just Add Sugar
Consider it sweet revenge: A substance derived from glucose has been shown to weaken termites' immune systems, possibly opening the door to safer pest controls, a new study says.

Irrigation system can grow crops with salt water

Irrigation system can grow crops with salt water

Technology Review: Making Fat Disappear

Engineering mice with a fat-burning strategy from bacteria keeps the animals thin.<br />

Technology Review: Mining "Ice That Burns"

Newly discovered methane hydrate reserves deep in the ocean show promise for mining.

Return of the Once-Rare Beaver? Not in My Yard. - NYTimes.com

Around the nation, decades of conservation efforts and changing land use have brought many species, like beavers, so far back from the brink that they are viewed as nuisances.

Link by Link - The Wars of Words on Wikipedia’s Outskirts - NYTimes.com
In Wikipedia’s less-traveled corners are obscure entries where the facts, point of view and wording can cause heated editing fights.

Climbing Gas Prices Could Slow a Recovery - NYTimes.com

The national jump in prices is far larger than the normal seasonal increase and threatens to curtail a modest recovery in consumer spending on items like apparel and electronics.

Jellyfish joyride a threat to the oceans

Early action could be crucial to addressing the problem of major increases in jellyfish numbers, which appears to be the result of human activities.

Study shows animal mating choices more complex than once thought

When female tiger salamanders choose a mate, it turns out that size does matter - tail size that is - and that's not the only factor they weigh.

Engineering stereotypes drive counterproductive practices

To engineering students, scenes like these might sound familiar: students splitting up group projects so they don't have to work together. One student bragging that he did the problem without following the directions but still got the right answer. Another student bragging about how he did the whole ...

Natural seed treatment could drastically cut pesticide use

The technology - which makes plants significantly more resistant to pests - has now been licensed for use by US agricultural company Becker Underwood in collaboration with Plant Bioscience Limited.

Busted: Student Disproves Popular Emergency Room Myth
Like the emergency room seen each week on ER, emergency departments in Canada increasingly seem overcrowded and chaotic. Emergency department overcrowding has been a pressing issue across the country for the last two decades.

Lyme disease is spreading in Canada, and physicians are crucial in helping minimize its impact

Lyme disease is emerging in Canada, and is expected to increase with climate change, but effective, enhanced surveillance and clinician awareness will be key to minimizing the impact of the disease, write researchers in a review in Canadian Medical Association Journal.

GM’s ‘Reinvention’ Starts With A $25M Battery Lab | Autopia | Wired.com

General Motors took a big step toward its reinvention as the New G.M. today when it opened what it calls the largest automotive battery laboratory in the

Be Bold With Broadband, Wired.com Readers Tell Feds | Epicenter | Wired.com

Federal internet regulators wants your help coming up with the first ever, national broadband plan — which they must deliver to Congress next February. At

Prisoners Run Gangs, Plan Escapes and Even Order Hits With Smuggled Cellphones

Get in-depth politics and legal news coverage including online privacy, Internet security, government regulations, censorship and free speech from Wired.com.

Rev Up Vintage Speakers - Wired How-To Wiki

Rosenhan experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The producer from hell | Film | The Guardian

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has a passion for cinema. But he could never find a director to realise his vision. So he kidnapped one from the South, jailed him and fed him grass, then forced

Inflatable tower could climb to the edge of space - space - 08 June 2009 - New Scientist

A giant pneumatic structure could let people climb 20 km without the need for a rocket &ndash; and it could be constructed with current technology

BBC NEWS | Technology | Swedish pirates capture EU seat

The furore in Sweden over the trial of The Pirate Bay has helped the Pirate Party win a seat in the European Parliament.

YouTube - Eugene Mirman 2009 LHS Commencement Speech

Eugene Mirman's commencement speech for the 2009 Lexington High School graduating class at the Tsongas Arena.

Why your brain just can't remember that word - life - 08 June 2009 - New Scientist
'Tip-of-the-tongue' moments and déjà vu are phenomena that reveal our brains' occasional slip-ups &ndash; now we're a little closer to understanding both

The day pain died: What really happened during the most famous moment in Boston medicine - The Boston Globe

The date of the first operation under anesthetic, Oct. 16, 1846, ranks among the most iconic in the history of medicine. It was the moment when Boston, and indeed the United States, first emerged as a world-class center of medical innovation. The room at the heart of Massachusetts General Hospital where the operation took place has been known ever since ...

FORA.tv - Rodney Brooks: Remaking Manufacturing With Robotics

Heartland Robotics Chairman and CTO Rodney Brooks asks: What will it take for robots to be added to the toolchest of the makers of American manufacturing, so that they can increase productivity, provide better jobs for American workers, and compete even more strongly in our globalized world?Following on President Obama's call to "begin again the work of remaking America," Maker Faire 2009 was organized around the theme of Re-Make America. Held in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maker Faire celebrates what President Obama called "the risk takers, the doers, and the makers of things."

Solaqua Uses Solar Power to Purify Water : TreeHugger
Image via SOLAQUA A cool new design by Jason Lam, a student designer at University of New South Wales, shows a water purifier that uses the power of the sun to make water drinkable. It's intended for places with

Wild dogs that commute from suburbs to scavenge in city | The Sun |News

STRAY dogs are leaving animal experts amazed — by commuting to and from a Russian city centre on underground trains

Analysis Finds Elevated Risk From Soot Particles in the Air - NYTimes.com

A review found that the risk of having a condition that is a precursor to heart attacks for people living in soot-laden areas goes up by 24 percent, as particle concentrations increase.

Scientists unravel the mystery of white-nose syndrome

The mysterious disease that has killed more than 90 percent of wintering bats in some caves and mines from Vermont to Virginia during the last three years has raised numerous questions about the nature of the disease and how to control it.

Altruism’s Bloody Roots | Wired Science | Wired.com

By favoring acts of battlefield selflessness, Stone Age warfare might have accelerated the development of altruism. A computer model of cultural

Why White Men Get Paid More | LiveScience

Customers prefer them, and managers frequently hire and set pay based on customer preferences.

News | SDSU | Cigarette Butts Toxic to Marine Life

"Ni Hao, I've Got This Huge F--ing Factory Spewing Pollution Into My River, Can You Send Someone Over?" : TreeHugger

Flickr: poorfish China Launches Complaint Hotline for Pollution In China, the mobile phone has become one of the most powerful tools citizens have to fight pollution. Today, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection is hoping to redirect citizen frustration

Russian Warns Against Relying on Dollar - NYTimes.com

President Dmitri A. Medvedev said wobbly American policies have made the dollar an undesirable currency for reserves held by central banks.

'Colossal' Magnetic Effect Under Pressure

(PhysOrg.com) -- Millions of people today carry around pocket-sized music players capable of holding thousands of songs, thanks to the discovery 20 years ago of a phenomenon known as the “giant magnetoresistance effect,” which made it possible to pack more data onto smaller and smaller hard drives. ...

Skyscraper greenhouses to sprout in crowded cities: expert

Vertical greenhouses that grow organic fruit and vegetables smack in the middle of crowded cities where land is scarce may soon be a reality, a Swedish company developing the project said Friday.

'Warrior Gene' Responsible for Gang Membership, Weapon Use

(PhysOrg.com) -- Boys who carry a particular variation of the gene Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), sometimes called the “warrior gene,” are more likely not only to join gangs but also to be among the most violent members and to use weapons, according to a new study from The Florida State University that ...

Bacteria from the deep can clean up heavy metals
A species of bacteria, isolated from sediments deep under the Pacific Ocean, could provide a powerful clean-up tool for heavy metal pollution.

Bee-killing parasite genome sequenced

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have sequenced the genome of a parasite that can kill honey bees. Nosema ceranae is one of many pathogens suspected of contributing to the current bee population decline, termed colony collapse disorder (CCD). Researchers describe the parasite's genome ...

Drinking water from air humidity

Cracks permeate the dried-out desert ground, the landscape bears testimony to the lack of water. But even here, where there are no lakes, rivers or groundwater, considerable quantities of water are stored in the air. In the Negev desert in Israel, for example, annual average relative air humidity is ...

Beehive fence deters elephant raiders

(PhysOrg.com) -- A fence made out of beehives wired together has been shown to significantly reduce crop raids by elephants, Oxford University scientists report.

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Mondoweiss: Max Blumenthal: Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of Obama's Cairo Address

Max Blumenthal writes: On the eve of President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, I stepped out onto the streets of Jerusalem with my friend Joseph Dana to interview young Israelis and American Jews about their...

Cm: Dolphins create bubble rings by blowing air in a water vortex ring...

Did a meteor bring down Air France 447? | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine

Miscellany | Back in 1996, after the initially very mysterious explosion and crash of Flight 800 from JFK to Rome, there were numerous eyewitness accounts of a streak in the

Vernacular architecture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Untitled - rockus's posterous

U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

The U.S. economy will enter
“hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because
the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates,
investor [bn:PRSN=1] Marc Faber [] said.

Richard K. Bank — What the Merchant Marine Can Teach the Auto Industry - washingtonpost.com

Once, the U.S. merchant marine included hundreds of ships that regularly transported a significant portion of U.S. imports and exports and employed tens of thousands of Americans at sea and on land. Today, only a handful of such liner vessels plying regularly scheduled routes still fly the Stars and...

YouTube - Pentagon Reports Army Mascot 'Liberty' Killed in Iraq [via claudio]
Appointed by Bush in 2003 to distract from the horrors of war, Liberty's antics turned fatal yesterday when he cart-wheeled into a roadside bomb.

YouTube - Special Boy With Freakishly Large Brain Wins Spelling Bee [via claudio]

On Today Now!, Jim and Tracy meet James Kimura, a 12-year-old afflicted with the ability to spell long words normal kids don't even care about.

Meatpoultry.com

please view very scary

Peterborough Lift Lock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Technology Review: Getting Arsenic Out of Water

IBM is developing a membrane that is more effective at ridding drinking water of arsenic contaminants.

Technology Review: Gene Defect Corrected in Human Stem Cells
New research outlines a path toward new therapies with induced pluripotent stem cells.

Hoe één man een verschil maakte | Flabber

Eén man en zijn pilletje veranderde die mooie dag op een festival de toeschouwers in een krioelende mensenmassa.

Models’ Projections for Flu Miss Mark by Wide Margin - NYTimes.com

Expert’s modest predictions regarding the spread of the swine flu in the U.S. were quite off, and now the CDC estimates that there are “upwards of 100,000” cases in the U.S.

Remember Pearl Harbor? This Lock Breaker Does

Get Wired's take on technology business news and the Silicon Valley scene including IT, media, mobility, broadband, video, design, security, software, networking and internet startups on Wired.com

The Ultimate Lock Picker Hacks Pentagon, Beats Corporate Security for Fun and Profit

Get Wired's take on technology business news and the Silicon Valley scene including IT, media, mobility, broadband, video, design, security, software, networking and internet startups on Wired.com

Findings - In That Tucked Tail, Real Pangs of Regret? - NYTimes.com

From brain scans and other data, more signs of animal ruefulness.

Wood Bridge In Netherlands As Strong as Steel and a Lot Prettier : TreeHugger
Images via Contemporist Have I mentioned that I love wood as a building material? If sustainably harvested it provides a strong, beautiful material that can last for centuries and sequester CO2 the whole time. People have built bridges from

Technology Review: Brewing Spandex

A startup uses strains of <i>E. coli</i> bacteria to convert sugar into valuable chemicals for textiles and other products.

Chinese Company Buying G.M.’s Hummer Brand - NYTimes.com

A machinery company with ambitions to become a carmaker is the prospective owner, at an undisclosed price.

Ethanol production could jeopardize soil productivity

There is growing interest in using crop residues as the feedstock of choice for the production of cellulosic-based ethanol because of the more favorable energy output relative to grain-based ethanol. This would also help provide a solution to the debate of food versus fuel, because less of the grain ...

Scientists create metal that pumps liquid uphill
(PhysOrg.com) -- In nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle—but does so at ...

Teaching Computers To Recognize Objects

Recognizing objects and groups of objects is something we humans take for granted. For computers, this is far from straightforward. A European project has come up with novel solutions to this conundrum.